Senior Data Scientist, Risk

About the role

Mudflap is a fast-growing marketplace business serving the $800B trucking industry. We're seeking a Senior Data Scientist, Risk to join our high-impact team. This role is based in Palo Alto, CA and involves a hybrid work approach.

Responsibilities

• Drive strategic data science initiatives that directly impact business outcomes, working closely with executive leadership to identify high-value opportunities in your domain.
• Lead end-to-end machine learning projects from problem formulation through production deployment, including model development, validation, A/B testing, and performance monitoring.
• Solve high-impact business problems such as fraudulent risk assessment, underwriting, customer segmentation, etc.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Ops, Risk teams, etc. to translate complex business requirements into analytical solutions and communicate insights to executive stakeholders.
• Mentor junior data scientists and analysts and establish best practices—Provide technical leadership, code reviews, and strategic guidance while developing scalable data science methodologies and standards across the organization.
• Lead experimentation strategy and drive product innovation—Own end-to-end A/B testing frameworks, mentor teams on experimental design, and translate test results into actionable product improvements that directly impact key business metrics.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in data science, analytics, or related fields.
• Proficiency in SQL and Python for data manipulation, modeling, and automation.
• Experience building production-ready models and pipelines.
• Strong statistical knowledge and experience designing experiments (A/B testing, cohort analysis, causal inference).
• Excellent communication skills—ability to present complex insights clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience in at least one of the domains: risk, growth/marketing, or product analytics preferred.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment where collaboration and flexibility are essential.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Experience with data warehousing tools (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift).
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure).
• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI).
• Experience with distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Spark).

Skills

• Data modeling and machine learning techniques.
• Statistical analysis and hypothesis testing.
• A/B testing and experimentation design.
• Python programming and data manipulation libraries (Pandas, NumPy).
• SQL for database querying and ETL processes.
• Experience with cloud-based data processing services (AWS Glue, Azure Data Factory).
• Experience with data visualization tools (Tableau, Power BI).
• Experience with distributed computing frameworks (Spark, Hadoop).

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity in a high-growth startup.
• Multiple health benefit options.
• Responsible Time Off.
• 401(k) matching.
• Annual Company offsite event (Mudfest!)

Pay

The salary range for this role is $185,000 - $225,000. This information reflects a base salary range for this position based on current market data, which may be subject to change as new market data becomes available. The candidate's skills, experience, and other relevant factors will determine the exact compensation.

Schedule

This role is based in Palo Alto, CA and involves a hybrid work approach, balancing in-office collaboration with the ability to work remotely.